Capacitors are utilized in numerous semiconductor constructions, including, for example, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices. Capacitors comprise a pair of electrically conductive materials (frequently referred to as a storage node and a capacitor plate) which are separated from one another by dielectric material. The conductive materials are thus capacitively coupled with one another.
Various materials have been utilized for the conductive components of capacitor constructions, including, for example, metals, metal silicides, metal nitrides and conductively-doped semiconductor materials (such as, for example, conductively-doped silicon). Materials that can be particularly useful in capacitor constructions are so-called noble metals, which include, for example, platinum, rhodium, iridium, palladium and ruthenium. A difficulty in utilizing the noble metals is in patterning constructions from the metals. For instance, if platinum is utilized to form a conductive component of a capacitor construction, it can be difficult to pattern the platinum into a desired shape.
One of the methods that is frequently utilized for patterning platinum is chemical-mechanical polishing. However, such method can smear platinum. The smearing can cause undesirable defect structures.
It would be desirable to develop new methods of forming noble metals into desired shapes for semiconductor applications, and it would be particularly desirable if such new methods could be applied to fabrication of capacitor structures.
Although the invention was motivated by the applications discussed above, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to such applications except to the extent that the applications are explicitly recited in the claims which follow.